AMD Ships New Opterons

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices has begun shipping three new processors in its Opteron line, including a high-end version of the 64-bit processor that it says provides improved performance in four-way, X86-based deployments.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said its Opteron 250 is available immediately, while the 850 and 150 processors will be available in 30 days.

The Opteron 850 is positioned for four-way systems, AMD said, with the 250 aimed at two-processors servers and two-processor workstations.

"We started sampling these products three or four months ago," said Gina Longoria, the AMD Opteron 200 Series product manager. "A lot of our system builders in the channel have qualified their systems based on these processors. We've given a good amount of time for our partners to get on board to support our processors."

AMD executives also said the company would begin to make its transition from its current 135 nm manufacturing process to a more cost-effective 90 nm process, and would begin shipping some 90 nm chips in the third quarter.While AMD has been hailed for its first-to-the-market, backward-compatible, 64-bit processors, which support both 32-bit and 64-bit software applications, the company has trailed rival Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., in the more-efficient 90 nm manufacturing technology. Intel executives said last week that, by the third quarter, most of its processors shipped to market would be built on a 90 nm process.

AMD, though, continues to tout the availability of its Direct Connect architecture, technology that the company says connects memory directly to the CPU and reduces processing bottlenecks. Direct Connect is implemented in all of AMD's new processors.

The Opteron 850 will be priced at $1,514 in 1,000-unit quantities; the 250 will be priced at $851 in 1,000-unit quantities; and the 150 will be priced at $637 in 1,000-unit quantities, AMD said.